Play shares anti-bullying message with students

PALMER — Here are some of the messages imparted at a Colony Middle School assembly Friday:

“Bullying is intentionally hurting someone who has less power than you.”

“Kids who are bullies in middle school are five times more likely to be arrested as adults.”

“It’s not cool to make fun of others.”

All good lessons, but not the sort of thing one expects to see middle schoolers shower with raucous — at times barely contained — applause, or cause one of them to excitedly blurt, “Oh no you di-in’t!”

But then Friday’s assembly wasn’t your typical assembly. It was, instead, a production of “The Bully Show,” a play performed by three high school actors and produced by Sherrod Elementary teacher Annie Williams with funding from the Mat-Su Health Foundation and Palmer Arts Council.

Williams said she got the idea during a conference of the American Alliance for Theatre and Education.

“It’s a really fun way to get important messages across,” she said.

And she knew that in the Valley she’d be able to count on a lot of resources and support.

“We couldn’t have done it without the Palmer Arts Council and the Mat-Su Borough School District and the Mat-Su Health Foundation,” she said.

The play is structured around a game show. One actress is the show’s host, the other two work with her on the production.

Zach Hardy plays Frederico in the play. The game show hostess treats him very shabbily, yelling at him, insulting his intelligence and referring to him by nicknames ranging from “Rico” to “Freddy” to “Freddy the Freak from Battle Creek.”

Hardy said he started acting last year at Palmer High School. He was in “Blood Brothers.” That play’s director, Grant Olson, got to talking with Williams, he said.

“She was looking for a dude” to be in The Bully Show.

So Hardy stepped forward.

Miranda Bang plays the game show hostess.

“I was in Annie’s theater camps all through middle school,” she said.

Now in high school, she hasn’t done any plays recently, but Williams called her up and offered her the lead and she accepted.

The third performer, Katie Crowley, plays the other production assistant, sticking up for Frederico and helping run the various parts of the game show.

She said she also hasn’t acted outside of Williams’ camps, but knows Williams pretty well and was happy to help with the play.

Acting was just one of their duties. The play’s cast also works as its roadies, loading the stage sets, lighting and sound equipment in and out of the gym. That’s no small task, either, considering the barnstorming tour the play has embarked on. In less than two weeks, Williams and company plan to perform 23 shows at 13 schools. A lot of those gigs are four-show days, with three at a middle school followed up with one across town at an elementary school.

Howard Bess, long one of the driving forces behind the Palmer Arts Council, said in an email that the play constitutes a serious effort to combat bullying in schools.

“It is the most significant undertaking in the history of the Palmer Arts Council,” Bess wrote.

Colony Middle School Principal Mary McMahon certainly seemed to think the play was a significant teaching moment. She got up afterward to urge students to talk to their parents and their friends about it. She also shared a story of a time her son was bullied.

“Be courageous,” she told the students. “Stand up against bullying.”

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.